Dummerston Civic Tech

Civic tech is about using technology to strengthen communities by making public information more accessible, building technology infrastructure, and preserving local history. It works to make technology more grassroots and by encouraging and empowering people to get involved with technology and government. This meetup aims to find people in the area that are interested in writing code, working with hardware, and creating tech solutions for local government. Vermont, and many rural areas as a whole, often find themselves falling behind larger cities and areas with a greater population density when it comes to innovations in technology.

This first gathering will have a discussion on digitizing the local historical section in the Lydia Taft Pratt Library and the possibility of training an open-source AI model to search and analyze this information. AI as a tool is not something only available to large tech companies looking to monopolize the energy grid, it is something that can be built in small, application specific ways by an individual or small groups of individuals. This meetup will be a discussion to explore and possibly demonstrate AI tools and the concepts of Open Software, Public License, Freemium, Orphanware, and other types of licenses that allow free use.

This event is open to not only people interested in coding, but people who are interested in preserving local history or are just interested in what technology as a democratic activity can do for local government. Feel free to attend and work on your own project, but bring your own laptop or device.